How to buy used gear (and not get burned)

Don't get burned!

Photography gear is pricey, and buying used is a great way to keep your wallet from getting too thin, but it also comes with quite a few risks. The high price associated with photo gear sometimes attracts unsavory folks disguising themselves as reputable sellers as a means to part you from your hard earned cash. Thankfully, it's pretty easy to avoid this from happening.

I've been buying gear on a budget for thirteen years now, mostly via eBay and Craigslist, and in that time have come up with a basic set of rules to protect myself from getting burned. And after recently reading a gear-buying horror story, I felt compelled to write down my rules – with the input of my DPReview colleagues – and share them with you.

Note: There are exceptions to these rules and following them does not necessary guarantee you won't get burned by a bad deal. As with any big-ticket purchase, common sense is the best and safest policy.

Comments

My tip: buy a full frame camera. The market for full frame lenses is bigger than the market for AFS and other smaller formats. New, smaller cameras and lenses are cheaper, but used full frame lenses are cheaper and more available than used smaller lenses. My Sony a7 will take any lens made in the past 50 years, with adapters. In particular, I got great deals on Sony A-mount lenses. They're as sharp as the FE lenses, but I don't have auto focus or optical stabilization. For lenses that I don't use often this isn't a problem.

One thing i would recommend too if you're buying a lens is to ensure that the lens is able to run the full focus range without issue. ie. Focus on a white wall, where the camera and lens would have to hunt the entire focal range to ensure that the focus motor doesn't bind at, say, the far ends of the spectrum/scale. I had a lens I almost purchased at a reduced rate (about $300 vs the $800 they were asking) after finding out that at the extreme ends of focus, the focus motor would squeak, indicating a bad motor. Motor was replaced & I still came out ahead of the game (price-wise), but it just goes to show that you have to look at everything when you are testing lenses. Also check the aperture blades for oil, and check to make sure they don't "stick" which can be a problem. Bring a flashlight & take your time inspecting lens. If the buyer pressures you into buying it, it may mean there might be something wrong with the lens that's not obvious.

Unfortunately, the lenses I want to buy, nobody really wants to sell (the higher-end pro-glass for Nikon). And the ones I've found online so far either have problems (AF doesn't work, etc, and thus is cheap) or the seller wants near retail price for the lens. I guess that's a good and bad thing. Good meaning that NIkon lens (and probably Canon and Sony) hold their value if you take care of them, bad for people looking to save on used gear...

"Buy from reputable used retailers like KEH or from the used department of reputable camera retailers like Adorama or B&H"

B&H is a reputable retailer but too frequently their used cameras and lenses show that they were _never_ tested for usability, only that they passed a quick cosmetic appearance check. B&H will provide full refunds ... unless the buyer doesn't ask for a return within the specified return window time frame, making it imperative for buyers to not delay their own testing for too long. KEH's used gear ratings are more useful in that unlike B&H, they base their ratings on all aspects, appearance as well as usability.

shutter count in NOT the same as zee odometer in cars.A shutter is not so expensive to repair and in 30 years with over 100 cameras and much more from my colleagues - we had 3 shutter problems and for just one, I had to pay 350€.And the two other had major problems with the shutter itself (Contax and Canon EOS 1D).So don't worry or ask for shutter counts!And new electronic shutters have no shutter count!

Considering there are a lot of mechanical shutters out there then lots of people WILL (or should) care - I have come across cameras with over 250,000 actuations. The shutter count SHOULD be a GENERAL indicator of how much the camera has been used, however there are a couple of reservations:

1. The file number (= shutter) count is relevant as long as the count is not reset with a change in the card, as is an option on my cameras.2. I had occasion to low level format my SD card & then reset the shutter count immediately afterwards. It went back to 100-001 for the next image. So getting software that can go into the camera's firmware to get a true usage has value.3. Using techniques similar to what I outlined in (2), disreputable sellers could seek to hide a high shutter count, but a good identifier of usage is to also check for shine on the body & around the various controls. That is much harder to hide & should be a flag if the body shows shine but has a very low shutter count.

Personally, I would avoid them for camera bodies. Lenses might a different story as you can usually see cosmetic defects in the glass. With bodies, it's not so obvious. That and probably many pawn shops probably don't do any testing on units they take in, so it's more like buyer beware or buy at your own risk. No warranties either. I'd suggest going to somewhere like B&H and Adorama, where at least you have a 30 days return period if the camera doesn't check out. maybe more expensive, but if you end up buying a lemon, at least you're not out that money. Plus B&H and Adorama, etc, usually won't risk their reputations to gain a few bucks by selling someone junk. A pawn shop would probably care less about that. I would buy from an individual from ebay or craigslist before I purchased from a pawn shop.

For what I've seen in one I know, they (I talk about old M42 lenses and bridge cameras) check for fungus on the lens on the former and on the latter that they work correctly. I don't know what testing use besides that, but I suspect not very much and hidden defects are still here, as happened with an old Sony DSC-H1 that died on my hands just two weeks after buying it there.

At least law mandates them to offer a two-year warranty on their products.

Yeah I've heard that the big things to look for (other than the obvious: lens damage, AF motor failure, etc) is fungus, dust (which in some lenses, such as the older 70-200 f/2.8 Nikons, which were like dust magnets), and oil on the aperture blades. The one thing I would also recommend is checking the AF motor's full range of "motion" (ie. focus on something that the camera actually can't lock focus on, such as a white wall) to test the full range of the AF system. I had looked at a lens that would AF on a subject, but found in a second test that towards the extremes (near infinity) it would squeal, but only near the extreme ends of the focus range, which meant the motor was dying--otherwise I would have not caught that).

I have owned Nikon gear since the late 70s and have never bought a new lens. The only new stuff I've bought is three dslr bodies. Over the years I've had good success buying used. I find people are mostly honest and when there is an issue, it's most often because they don't know enough about the gear to either sell or buy competently.

You can always request seller for post-payment with a check permission. Seller sells a product for 400€ and shipping costs 12,90€. You transfer 12,90€ + 20€ to sender bank account. Seller sends packet to you and you have 14 days to go pick it up or it is sent back to seller. If you accept the package, you pay to post-office the 392,90€ and walk away with product. If it wasn't what was agreed or told, you don't accept package and you are only 32,90€ poorer.

Here as well there are few craiglists and they offer a checked accounts. Meaning seller is confirmed to be who they claim to be. It is safest way as seller/buyer has used their citizen ID to confirm identity and this way police can just come and pick up in case of wrongdoing.

And of course you have the reputation of buyer/seller in those sites, and as most people anyways work as authenticated people, it is trustworthy business. But now and then non-authenticated try to fool.

Also,almost always mention that your 'for selling stuff' are coming from smoke free area and if you like,say that you have pet free policy. I had my 7D Mark II to be sold to the guy who turned out to be 'not pet friendly'! He thought & told me that my pet licks that camera body everyday when he saw it barking! Of course,this is only imagination that comes from some customers' creative minds!

I sold a lens on eBay, marked as "For Spares or Repair due to fungus", buyer tried to get a refund because there was fungus and the pictures it produced were "soft". They admitted that they only saw the price and that the lens outer body was in fantastic condition.

For buying on eBay, one thing to look at is the feedback that the seller has left for other people. This is separated out under its own tab. You can get a sense of whether this is a responsible person or a nutjob.Also, I very much dislike not seeing a photo of the actual item being sold, rather than a stock photo; individuals are less likely to do this than the big sellers. And while I appreciate the mass dump of manufacturer stats about a camera, I do like to see some description from the seller in his or her own words. It also helps if the seller says why he or she is selling, though this tidbit is not essential.I've not sold or bought camera equipment secondhand but have bought and sold lots of other things.

I have sold alot of camera gear on eBay over the years, including a D200, a 10mm fisheye, a 12-24 DX, 17-55 DX and 18-200 DX, plus some FX things: 70-200 f/2.8 V2, 24-70 f/2.8 V1, and the venerable 14-24 f/2.8. Also a few Fujifilm cameras (X100 and X100S). A few years ago I bought a 60 f/2.8D Micro on eBay, mostly because I wasn't really sure I'd be keen on the focal length. I'm happy to say that $230 lens is my favorite now, better than my 50 or my 85 f/1.4 because... minimum focus distance. I wasn't interested in the 60G, as I have a "thing" for the D series. I have a number of G lenses (20, 24, 50, 85, 105), but I do love my D lenses: 35 f/2D, 60, 135 DC, 200 f/4 micro.

I've only been burned once on eBay--when I sold an iPhone to someone in India. They said they never got it, and now, I only sell within the continental U.S. with UPS tracking.

More recently, I sold my Df on eBay.

If I wanted to unload everything now, I would give it all to Adorama and let them cut me a check.

I don't know about India, but when I lived in South America the mail was not very reliable. Employees opened packages and took things. I only point this out because it very well may not have been a scam a buyer ran on you. The poor person might have had their camera stolen. Maybe you both lost out.

Nowadays there are courier services that have a home base, say in Miami, with lots of mailbox addresses, like a UPS store. If you live in a foreign country, you pay for one of the mailbox addresses. Stuff gets delivered to a U.S. address. The courier service delivers it to your home country, bypassing the mail. You do have to pay customs, but the cost is minimal, and you get your item.

Always in such cases when selling stuff, make a video in the post-office/pick-up phase where you can see the box content and then when it gets closed and sealed and handed off for postman/courier and how it is "out-of-your-hands". The video needs to be constantly on the package so not a single frame is out of package. And package have a unique marking (like draw a stick characters on it) that can be seen on video it is the same package going all the time instead (some odd brown cardboard box).

If anything happens, you have proof that you have sent the promised product and it is the logistic company fault if so haven't happened.

You are not responsible if the logistic company loses a package, and so on money is yours to keep in such cases. As what you really promise is to put the product in the box, get it delivered to the buyer.

Yes, but in the example I give above, if you get the package to Miami as a seller, you're good.

At that point you have proof of delivery from USPS or whoever.

If the courier loses it after that, tough luck.

By the way, I've been on both sides of that. I rented one of those boxes and services in South America, and used it to get an emergency used camera from ebay when my equipment was stolen. It worked so well, I got other stuff too.

I have about 200 cameras, mostly film, mostly bought used. This includes about a dozen Leicas, and several dozen Zeiss and Voigtlanders, all purchased used. I buy from trusted dealers, especially B&H, and a few others I prefer to keep to myself. I often buy refurbed by the original manufacturer. Kenmore Cameras, near Seattle, used to have a very large used inventory, not so much anymore. I have used experts for repair and highly recommend John Maddox who only works on Leica screwmounts, and can make many of the internal hardware parts. eBay has become more diligent. Don't buy any used cameras from the FSU, Ben screwed too many times. Most Japanese sellers can be trusted. For point and shoots, I mostly buy new. The only new DSLR I have ever bought new was the D70.

Interesting how Paypal was listed as a "safe" method. A quick google search will give you as many horror stories as you'd care to read about sellers getting screwed since PayPal sides with the buyer 99% of the time. Want a free lens? Just use Paypal and say you never received it...

The workaround is to use Paypal gift, but that just flips it around and removes buyer protection in the case of a fraudulent seller, so it's not much better. Paypal in general is just too full of scams and horror stories to be trusted with any significant amount of money IMO. There is no way to use Paypal currently that doesn't leave one side completely exposed to fraud with little to no recourse.

Do as I wrote above, make the video showing that the product is in the box(put in the box) and box is closed and sealed with correct address etc and then given to courier/postman (it is out of your hands, in hands of the logistic company).

Now if the PayPal comes to say something (as they contact you about the problem) you give them the video that is the proof that you had the product, you gave it for the transportation and you did your job as the seller.

Now if the PayPal wants to get money, they need to turn over logistic company.

Then you as well should get a own account for the PayPal instead your main card. And only transfer money to / from it in the times as needed. So when the buyer has paid, transfer money out so PayPal can't just go withdrawing things (this requires you to have that video proof in first place).

Still doesn't work. You can read about many specific cases where people have done exactly as you describe, and still got screwed by the buyer. In fact the video method is common nowadays, and it still offers no protection. Also you could just be handing it to your buddy who happens to work for a postal service for all anyone knows, and shipping the buyer an empty box. Fact of the matter is no matter what you do, one of the two parties is exposed with PayPal. The best one can do is deal with people with lengthy feedback history and reduce the chances of an issue.

Shutter actuatons is largely a false economy. I am not happy with one of the "reputable dealers" mentioned for sending me a camera with 180k actuations, but 70k later its still going. However, the 7D i picked up off Ebay with 33k actuations is currently sitting in a Canon Service center with what I imagine is a broken logic board. Only 33k on the clock.

Shutter actuation is MTTF (Mean Time To Failure) value and you NEVER know when the shutter (or any part) will malfunction as it can be very early or very late or never.

With example Hard Drives it is that either they die at the early hours or then they go to MTTF time and then die (or never) but rarely they die between take-in-use and end-of-time periods. (This based to Google server data where they use typical drives and has "little" more statics to generate the data).

The problem is that there is much more to shutter wear than things wearing out. The whole mechanism is a precision device and any knocks and bumps will affect it in different ways. You couldnt just slam a camera against a wall repeatedly and expect the shutter to survive.

So in terms of whether a camera is a good buy or not, it can be very subjective about the overall use of the camera.

Be careful about a very good rating on eBay. Feedback is not always what it seems. Be sure to actually check the feedback, and not just read the total number and percentage.

There are some people who look to have a few hundred feedbacks, with a 98, or higher number, which looks good enough. But I’ve found some that didn’t mean that, and I blame eBay for this problem. What some do is to buy a lot of little, really cheap items, costing a buck, to a few bucks, from a lot of different sites, and pay quickly. But they have many fewer items that they’ve sold.

You look at the feedback, and see 400 with a 98.5% rating, and you think it’s good enough. But, in reality, they’ve only sold 30 items. For the 370 cheap ones they’ve bought, they’ve got a 100% feedback, but for the 30, much more expensive items they’ve sold, it’s far worse.

I wanted to add, but this stupid forum software doesn’t allow the amount of characters that:

So always check to see what’s actually happened, as far back as eBay allows. eBay should have two listings. One for buys, and one for sells. But they don’t, and it allows deception, because few people look beyond the number of feedbacks, and the total percentage.

I have bought used gear from KEH, Adorama, and B&H for a while now. They're very conservative with their condition ratings and usually the gear you get is in better condition than they indicate. Some of KEH's "bargain" condition items can turn out to be in much better shape than that.

KEH also runs an outlet store on eBay where they actually show pictures of the items. Even though you're buying the items from eBay, you still get KEH's 6 month warranty. Roberts Camera is similar.

I recently made the mistake of not Googling a seller before ordering some used lenses but I was in a hurry and it was the last day of a sale they had and I was on my way out when I found the website.

I did email to the seller before ordering with some questions I had and he answered within 20 minutes of my email so it felt like it was a serious business.

I did Google the seller later and he has a track record of bad reviews that probably can cover at least one round around the globe if printed. He also doesn't answer my emails any more, which according the others review is the standard mode of operation.

If you want others experiences just Google: rockycameras.com. My own experience fits the pattern in those perfectly, so no need to spend more energy on this, just learn and move on and spend the energy on better things.

So my tip is not to rush into a deal and also to Google the seller before. That can save you.

I was new to CL but I did have some excellent advice from my son who has used it extensively. I sold my entire Sony kit and expliciety stated that I would not ship it, just not interested. I also stated that I would not break that kit up, I had several inquiries about selling the lenses separately but I held to my original plan. I agreed that I would be happy to meet a buyer within 50-70 miles from home and it worked, took about the three weeks. I had decided that if the sale couldn't happen on my terms I would simply keep it, nothing wrong with owning a back up system.

I bought two lens ( nikon TC1.5x and sigma 100-300 F4) from KEH. While their service is exceptional and they accepted returns, Nikon barely made any change and Sigma was a garbage. Either they did not do any testing or my canon rebel was not in alignment with Sigma.

Buy last generation cheaper new, problem solved. Regardless, I sold quite a bit via the obvious site, and I got great returns for used gear. It helps to put up a good description and lots of images, as well as having a good track-record.

I second Fred Miranda. Something sells every second of every minute on Fred Miranda for sale boards. I do 80 percent of my used gear buying and selling and trading there. It takes a real leap of faith to trade thousands of dollars of equipment with someone across the nation. Yet I've done it countless times with zero issues on Fred Miranda. I even traded with people from Canada and I believe Israel once. It was all good. I've also did business on dedicated forum boards for various formats (Mu-43 board for m43, potn for canon, Nikoncafe for Nikon). Craigslist is last place I would look these days. Because you will never be able to check everything in 5 min you meet the seller at Starbucks. It is much better to deal with members at Fredmiranda who value their feedback and will always discolose if there are some issues with the gear.

But Fred Miranda for sale boards is myFirst stop always. Best place to buy/sell used camera equipment and best prices too

I will never sell my gear on Ebay again after nearly getting scammed by being paid by Paypal. It's way too easy for the buyer to say it never arrived or it was faulty and claim a charge back. I had one recently, luckily I managed to get my gear back and the claim closed.

From a professional buyer: Buying secondhand: It is not unreasonable to ask to see proof of ownership (also known as proof of title), a receipt or proof of a transaction emailed will do. Especially on ebay or other s/hand sites this helps to weed out the stolen and scammers.

No...she had a history of nearly a hundred crimes, thefts, cheque falsifications, internet scams, all kind of stuff. Not just sending me a broken camera, no. Two years of criminal activity came to an end.Murderers...it depends who they work for. Jaywalkers...hehe!

OMG, so they showed a photo of KEH for used equipment instead of B&H. So now the B&H fanbois have to rush in and start advertising? Mike FL -- a user with only 40 forum posts, but 3600+ comments to articles. More than half of the ones in his recent activity either praise B&H or bash Amazon. Interesting. I'm getting so tired of B&H being shoved down our throats by "happy customers".

Fred Miranda is a really good site for buying/selling second-hand. Besides good prices it also helps out people who live in the boonies vs in a large city. I got my 1st DSLR there, Nov 2004 got the Digital Rebel/300D kit for $565 at a time when they were going for $800-900 in Best Buy. Two years ago I only paid $135 for a Sony NEX-3n 16-50PZ kit.

Craigslist and Facebook Buy/Sell can do you well too, last year paid $200 for a D3100 with both lenses, this year $145 for a D3100 18-55mm kit, and $200 for a D3300 with the 18-55mm. I saw a Sony NEX-F3 kit for only $100 but didn't grab it in time.

I buy mostly (95%) second hand. Out of about 50 transactions I had only one lens failed on me so far. Sony FE 28-70 kit lens. The aperture got stuck. I sell on ebay too and have 100% feedback so far. I include this in my listings:

'I am photo-tech enthusiast who cares for his equipment very well and occasionally refurbishes used equipment. I am maximally honest about things I sell and I always try to provide the most honest and accurate description and photos. All my photos are made with flash to document the condition as closely as possible and any blemishes are rarely hidden.

All my items are always safely and securely packed. I don't mention amount of dust in the lenses unless I know that it is significantly affecting the lens performance or unless there is a really big particle.'

The problem is that FM is insular, and it's hard for a newbie to become accepted there. If you make it your home on the interwebs for all things photo, participate in the forums, etc. you'll do fine. If you go just for the buy-sell, you will likely be frustrated.

I'll never deal with FM. Tried listing a mint Nikon 500mm referencing my 100% perfect Ebay record. only to be mocked online by two jerk FM members. Received no help from FM, and had to file a PayPal complaint to get my membership cancelled and returned. Promptly and pleasantly sold it on another site.

In Finland the best known sites anyways offers you to authenticate your identity by using your citizen ID. You get a * to your name or something else.

This means that seller/buyer is who he/she claims to be and if there comes some problems, police can contact them without problems (and you anyways get to see the real name and address after you have made the agreement for purchase).

No need to "get in good with them" as you are not trusting in some bunch of people some forum "Oh, he is good fellow, you can trust him!" but you are really trusting to the government, police, bank etc the whole thing. At least if you get angry, you know the name and the address of the person...

When buying on eBay I always follow a few simple rules:Under about $100 I only buy from sellers with a decent description - if that's OK - Click-Buy.Over about $100 I shoot the seller a question - even with a good description - any question will do even if you know the answer. It's just about communication. If I receive a decent answer I may continue.Over about $1000 I try to engage a serious communication with at least two back-forth questions / answers. About the items and / or postage.I never buy items with poor quality photos.If possible only buy with a return guarantee.So far over my many many years and 100's of transactions was burned only once with a very 'beached' camera kit.Buying from big companies is a better guarantee but not 100% proof for the best.And finally a no-brainer : always check the feedback ! ALWAYS !!

If your a seller on eBay and sell over $100, YOU MUST provide internet tracking and signature (even if it costs you more for postage). If the buyer claims it wasn't delivered or you can't see who signed for it, you can lose your money and/or the item you sold due to fraud. eBay most of the time will side with the buyer, not the seller.

Remember when you could give a buyer negative feedback?! eBay took that away, because It had a negative impact on their profits. They don't really care about seller's protection.

Just a PSA about my experience, I bought a 7D from a seller supposedly in Germany with decent feedback/account history, but it turned out to be a fraud, and he even went so far as to buy an item (probably a $0.99 item) from a German seller and ship it to my zip code in order to provide a tracking number, that way he had the proper paper trail. It took several phone calls with eBay, my local post office, and filing an FBI internet crime report for me to get my money back. Because of our postal laws there was no way to get proof that the item was not addressed to me and could not possibly be a 7D from the size/shape.

Make the god damn video when the product is in the box with correct address > sealed > given to post/courier. Not a single frame is the box out of the frame.Now you have the 100% proof that you have posted the product as promised and it is in logistic company responsibility.

Then do the exact same thing when receiving the boxes. You take the video of the box coming, record the shipping data that sender is who claims to be and then you open the box and show the internal parts and not a single frame is without box well in frame. (This was called "unboxing video" before idiots and fools started to do that for a new products as it was "experience of opening new toy!") Now you have 100% proof what did you receive if you bought something that wasn't what you received.

With either video, you can wave any claims in any situation, no matter what. Not ebay or bank, not police, not even court can claim you made a fraud.

I'm not a super active eBayer, but I've bought maybe a dozen camera items in the past few years.

My feeling is that 15 years ago, the 10-20% undisclosed faults rate on eBay was probably accurate. But in the past few years, my own experience is much more than 50% have undisclosed faults. It's annoying and can cost you a little bit in return shipping, depending on how much of a hassle you're willing to endure.

You forgot to mentioned Reconditioned gear. They are often offered directly from the manufacturer's web site such as Olympus, Nikon, Canon and others for a useful saving. They are also offered by reputable resellers like BH and Amazon. I would hesitate to get one from an individual seller since there is no guarantee as far as I know of something being officially manufacturer reconditioned. Perhaps the author does not consider them to fit the definition of used gear.

Agreed, in the case of Olympus in particular a lot of their refurb outlet deals will actually and handily beast any used prices, it's worth checking out... 12mm f2 for $380-400 when you manage to combine a promo code with the refurb price is impossible to beat.

In one form or another, a majority of sellers misrepresent the item they are selling. I had that today from a reputable seller through Amazon on a small garage door part.

Recourse against a rogue seller is tough given the seller is either out-of-state or in a foreign country.

Sometimes you can score a great deal from someone selling an item directly and they are truthful and honest. Other times, you get the opposite.

The Amazon story in PetaPixal is the dark side when using Amazon as the in between party and leave the customer holding the bag. Amazon marketplace -- I liken it to eBay or Craigs List. Caveat Emptor when it comes to making purchases from these sellers.

I came to a realization many moons ago, buy from the most reputable sellers, if at all possible. You will pay more, but if there is a problem, their reputation is what they are also selling. They know if it gets tarnished, it will take a lot to bring it back sterling again.

I can't speak for the other sellers, but I can tell that you haven't purchased much from eBay. There is no comparison of eBay to Craigs List. There are no protections on CL, while on eBay, there are plenty of protections. Buyers have the ability to return an item purchased on eBay for a minimum of 30 days no matter what. If PayPal is used to purchase an item, those protections extend to 90 days.

@bobbarber, "If you return something on ebay, you almost always have to pay return shipping"

This is factually incorrect. If you have a legit reason for returning an item, open a case, when resolved in your favor, ebay will provide a shipping label for you and you get a full refund. B.t.w. getting the same from Amazon marketplace is a lot more difficult.

Now, if the item is misrepresented, you can get around that, but don't make it sound like it's an easy thing to do. It can be easy, but it can also be time consuming. I've had everything happen from the seller saying, "Just keep it," (item didn't work, he knew it), to a 3-day decision in my favor, to a knock-down drag out month-long back and forth, where the seller insisted his item wasn't defective (it was, and I won the case.)

Is it me, or has eBay gotten much worse in this regard? I've bought and sold many camera items on eBay over the last 15 years or so, and I used to rarely encounter sketchy descriptions. Now, it seems like everything is at least somewhat misrepresented, like that's now considered normal and everyone should know it's going to happen.

ebay has made it harder on sellers in a number of ways (unfair feedback rules, higher fees, etc.) so a lot of people have just dropped out. Those who have stayed have to bend the rules to make a profit.

For this reason, I don't go for the "look for lots of sales, lots of feedback" rule. Example: I just bought a laptop battery that after a month is crappier than the failing battery it was supposed to replace. The seller has lots of sales and lots of feedback. I'll bet my experience was the same for a lot of buyers, but they can't submit feedback in time. My laptop is an older model and I'll bet all of the seller's batteries for my model are old. I was expecting recently manufactured. The listing should have said, "New, old stock."

I go more for hobby sellers who are established but obviously not professionals. I think their descriptions are usually fairer. They're not looking to pay rent on an unfair business model. They just want to get rid of stuff.

@MadRussian, Canon refurb is a bargain. Often less expensive and come with a one (1) year Canon warrantee. I have seen many Canon lenses, at both stores and on e-bay, offered at higher prices with no warrantee—sorta a no-brainer, for me.

As Dan pointed out, EBay, for example, is full of items described as "not tested" or "I don't know much about cameras, but this looks okay". Most of those listings are also "no returns accepted". So you have to be a gambler to go for something like that.

Obviously, if you can get a product refurbished from the manufacturer for the same price, or lower, that's a better deal.

FWIW, I had a great experience buying a ~30 year old lens on Amazon without even looking at a single picture of it. I bought from a *strict camera gear seller* with *NEAR PERFECT buyer reviews* and was trusting that they valued their reputation too much to screw me over. I was not disappointed -- I received a shockingly beautiful, virtually perfect lens.

My advice: trust in sellers *with long histories*, that *highly value their reputations*.

If an eBay seller with lots of very positive feedback suddenly starts selling much more expensive items than before, of a type they hadn't sold much of before, and those items are a great deal, that eBay seller may have been hacked.

Just to point out, there's no such thing as "imported illegally". They may out of contract, but likely no laws were broken. Most state laws don't care who the seller was if there is a traceable manufacturer who may be on the hook for warranty regardless.

In the U.S., under most circumstances, non-controlled goods can be imported by anyone legally.

But that is not true in much of the rest of the world; remember, there is a global audience here and at most web publications. In many countries, the authorized importer of a brand is the only legal importer.

I disagree on #7. Manufacturers do not guaranteed their shutters by so many actuations, the shutters are rated so many actuations. Case in point, the Olympus E-M1 Mk II is rated for 200,000 actuations and in the United States carries a one year warranty. I can have 500,00 actuations on the shutter when it fails, and Olympus will replace the shutter for free if the camera is under the one year warranty. I could have 30,000 actuations before the shutter fails and be outside the one year warranty in the United States and Olympus is under no obligation to repair the shutter at no cost to the owner of the camera.

I'm not sure if there is any advantage to registering a product, and possibly some disadvantages (in the US). If it needs fixing and is under warranty, the manufacturer must honor the warranty regardless of the product being registered or not. Many companies imply that you must register to validate the warranty, but in reality they only use the registration info as marketing fodder. And there is the issue of transferring owner info should you sell the camera or lens.

The Leica Q2 is a fixed-lens, full-frame camera sporting a new 47.3MP sensor and a sharp, stabilized 28mm F1.7 Summilux lens. It's styled like a traditional Leica M rangefinder and replaces the hugely popular original Leica Q (Typ 116), launched in 2015.

Fujifilm's GFX 50R takes the image quality from the existing 50S model and wraps it in a new body with new controls and a lower price of entry. Is that enough to tempt you to pick one up for yourself? Find out how the GFX 50R performs in our full review.

The Mavic Air hits the sweet spot for many drone users, combining compact size with high performance and good image quality. Find out what makes it so useful, and why it might just be the best travel-friendly drone on the market today.

Latest buying guides

If you're looking for a high-quality camera, you don't need to spend a ton of cash, nor do you need to buy the latest and greatest new product on the market. In our latest buying guide we've selected some cameras that while they're a bit older, still offer a lot of bang for the buck.

What's the best camera for under $500? These entry level cameras should be easy to use, offer good image quality and easily connect with a smartphone for sharing. In this buying guide we've rounded up all the current interchangeable lens cameras costing less than $500 and recommended the best.

Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Sony mirrorlses cameras in several categories to make your decisions easier.

Whether you've grown tired of what came with your DSLR, or want to start photographing different subjects, a new lens is probably in order. We've selected our favorite lenses for Canon DSLRs in several categories to make your decisions easier.

Montana judge Dana L. Christensen has ruled the Republican National Committee did not infringe upon the copyright of photographer Erika Peterman after they took a photo from a Democratic candidate's Facebook page without permission and altered it to use in a derogatory promotional mailer.

Leica recently announced the Q2, a digital rangefinder with a fixed 28mm F1.7 lens. It's a heck of a lot of fun to shoot with, but is it right for you? Based on our time with the camera, and its specifications, we've examined how well-suited it is for common photography use-cases.

Now that our Panasonic Lumix S1R has final firmware, we couldn't wait to get out shooting with it - and we also tried the high-res mode, which combines files to get 187 megapixel images. Because sometimes, 47 megapixels just isn't enough.

Drones can be useful tools in urban areas, where they're utilized for everything from news reporting to building inspections, but flying in these areas requires careful preparation. Here's what you need to know to do so safely.